Cinemartin 4K NEXT Undercuts Odyssey & Shogun. Do You Get What You Pay For?

Spanish company Cinemartin is taking orders for its NEXT 4K, a combo recorder/monitor capable of recording up to 4K 60p in a variety of formats, color spaces and bit depths, including uncompressed Cinema, DPX, ProRes and H.265; up to 4:4:4; and 8- or 10-bit.

Still, an apples to apples comparison is a bit more tricky, as a close reading of the specs finds differences among the three on everything from compressed vs. uncompressed resolutions to maximum frame rates and bit depth/color space combinations.

Oh, and monitor resolutions as well.

Oh – and operating system/user interface choices, too.

And size/weight trade-offs.

Frankly, I’m staying away from 4K for now because my business doesn’t warrant anything more than 1080p – so I don’t have the hands-on experience to comment on those trade-offs.

It’s horses for courses, I guess – though we’d be very interested to hear from those of you, dear readers, who are deep into 4K. What do you think of these three?

NEXT 4K 60p Portable Recorder Computer Now available.

Cinemartin, the Spanish team producers of the popular Prores and HEVC H.265 standalone & plugin video converters among other cinematography tools and devices including the universal 15mm baseplate, now is proud to announce the inmediate availability of NEXT, the portable palm size 4K 60P video recorder / display / computer, featuring 3D and world first true uncompressed avi, Motion-Jpeg and DPX native recording, plus all variants of Prores up to 4444 and H265 transcodes, being the first in his category in the form of a portable computer as it is a Intel 64Bit Industrial based device.

NEXT records up to 4K (UHD 24-25-30-50-60P & DCI 24-25P) at 8 & 10-Bit, plus 1080p60, 720p60 and lesser framerates, at 4:2:0, 4:2:2 or up to 4:4:4 being the first in his class to feature RGB recording (in addition to YUV) and support for 4K60P using dual 6G-SDI inputs, featuring the ability to record and playback in 3D (side by side or frame packing). Starting at 995€ (limited time offer from 1.295€) for a OEM Basic model for DIY users that have or plan to separately purchase or integrate its own memory, drive and any compatible Decklink card (cards ranging from 200€ to 999€), there are some pre-build models, at 1.695€ for a Ready Entry model and 2.195€ for a Pro Kit, but customers can choose the features they want, so all the way up to the customized builds, where client can select video input/outputs, ram, internal storage capacity, battery packs, box or brifcase, and other accesories. 4K 60P is supported via dual 6G-SDI inputs.

High speed, true cinema quality, 3D and almost any codec

NEXT, The uncompressed recorder / tablet size / desktop powered device from Cinemartin, features a Industrial 64-Bit Intel Based computer, 4th or 5th generation processor, with a 6.7″ HD 500NIT touchscreen, 8 to 16GB RAM and a integrated internal SSD of up to 1TB. It is able to record true uncompressed video (cinema quality in a single .avi file) at up to 4K30P in both HDMI & SDI inputs or at up to 4K60P in dual 6G-SDI (6G-SDI are backwards compatible with HD-SDI & 3G-SDI).

It is available as of now, and the first shippings (first in first out) will start in May 2015. Deliveries 4-5 weeks after order.

Can be ordered with or without batteries, as there are wide available as it uses standard external labtop batteries from 12V to 19V and consumes an avg of only 29W (featuring a TDP of only 15W). Weights only 1.5 Kg.

Portable Video Computer

All models are computer based, featuring 64-Bit Intel industrial components, providing hours and hours of battery life, more than 3 without sleep or hibernate modes that can be enabled on device to long battery for more than 5-7 hours, then simply put a finger over the display, move it, and Cinemartin NEXT gets back from sleep in less than 1 second. Cinemartin has been partnered with a industrial manufacturer to be able to provide this features in this space with this power consume, as there is no mass produced computer boards providing this specs.

With state of the art last technology including 8 to 16GB of RAM, and a integrated SSD 6G from 250GB to 1TB, featuring 4th or 5th Intel generation chipset, the unit provide for hours of material in Motion-Jpeg, or 40 minutes of uncompressed 4K 25P or DPX as defaults native recording formats, and hours and hours of professional codecs once transcoded to Prores or H.265 using the included background transcode tool.

The unit comes with Windows 8.1 (upgradeable to Windows 10) and it is a powerfull station with plenty of realtime input and outputs, with up to 4x 6G-SDI and 2x HDMI and 2x DisplayPort and 2x GigaEthernet ports. From a Celeron to latest Core i7 5th gen., meaning users can plug a keyboard and mouse,plug a computer display and/or a video monitor and start editing.

Following Hands-on video review was recorded and edited in Premiere Pro CC (8.0) and then uploaded to youtube / vimeo with the same NEXT device, no any other thing, no any other computer, no any other drives (as there is no need to move files between computers as you can edit in the device), just a keyboard, mouse and a optional monitor.

In this video Alex review the Cinemartin Next 4K recorder, monitor, computer device, using a Panasonic X1000

This device record up to 4K 60P 10Bit 4:2:0, 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 in True cinema quality, uncompressed avi.

Model used on this video allows 3D recording (side by side or frame packing) and comes with dual 6G-SDI and HDMI input/outputs.

Entry model have HDMI input/output only but same high brightness display (+500NIT), 4K & UHD video record, 1080 & 720 up to 60P and NTSC & PAL capable record too, as well as default uncompressed, mjpeg or DPX sequence record as well as the software that allows transcodes to Prores and H.264 and HEVC H.265

Bluetooth, Wifi host enabled, GigeEthernet and your own Live Streaming server
NEXT is Wifi and Bluetooth ready so users can connect to internet, send, share or upload to youtube, or send to an FTP but as it comes with dual GigaEthernet ports plus wifi host enabled, users can host a streaming server and once joined a network, other users can play the clips recorded and stored on NEXT, everywhere, like from the other side of the world, from their own computers, tablet, mobiles and monitors just with a internet connection.

Cinemartin NEXT device may complement and convergent with existing and new recorders including VideoDevices PIX-E5, PIX-E7, Atomos Shogun and Convergent Design Odyssey. The advantatges of NEXT are being able to record 4K in true uncompressed avi, up to 4:4:4, 3D, múltiple formats, and providing a portable computer compatible with Windows, Linux and MAC OS to enable a streaming server, a portable high speed NLE and DIT box, etc. for a reasonable comparable price

NOTE: For OEM and DIY users, it will be possible to install any OS via USB pendrive: Windows, Linux and MAC OS*, but Cinemartin will only provide software for Windows on the beggining, being possible to port the included windows Live & Live T applications for fullscreen recording and transcoding to MAC at later date. *MAC OS is only compatible on NEXT devices with predefined or custom OEM builds based on models powered by Corei7 4th or 5th gen or Core i5 or i7 5th gen.

Hugh is the founder of Three Blind Men and An Elephant Productions. He and the team write, direct, shoot, score, and edit web-centric films; conduct photo shoots; and write copy, white papers and blog posts. Hugh also writes screenplays (he recently optioned a TV pilot) and just published his first eBook (Apple's iPhone: The Next Video Revolution). If it's about telling stories, it's in their wheelhouse.

Comments

Why is it so bloody big? The whole idea of having an A7s gets lost with something that bulky. As of right now, the PIX EC5 is really the only viable 4k recorder. I wish Atomos or whomever offer a 4k recorder with a 4.3″ monitor or no monitor at all. None of these manufacturers seemed to have got the memo that we buy DSLR or mirrorless video cameras because they’re small.

TS Naylor I don’t think people buy DSLR or mirrorless cameras because they’re small, but because they can do amazing images without breaking the bank. I think people forget how big and bulky are professional camcorders to create the same kind of image of a ‘cheap’ DSLR.